MOTORSPORT: The Giz reigns supreme

Five-from-five is the brutal win rate for Shane van Gisbergen after a rampaging run through the second round of the 2021 Repco Supercars Championship at the Sandown SuperSprint on the weekend.

A broken collarbone that was plated during surgery after a mountain bike crash was supposed to slow the speedy Kiwi but, once he had pounded his Red Bull Ampol Commodore across the kerbs on the second lap of practice to check his pain threshold, he tore through the three-race meeting like a shark attacking a school of bait fish.

SvG broke a record that had stood for more than 30 years when he won from a miserable 17th starting position in the Saturday sprint, then used his famed wet-road ability for two dominant victories when the fickle Melbourne weather flipped on Sunday.

“He is pretty much unbeatable,” says David Reynolds, who scored his first podium with a Ford Mustang in the Sunday finale.

Cam Waters and Chaz Mostert looked the most likely threats to The Shark, and Waters did collect the 100th podium finish for the Mustang in the Saturday sprint, but he struggled in the Sunday rain and Mostert was let down by poor strategy and a broken throttle cable in the last race in his WAU Commodore.

The previously-dominant Shell V-Power team is still adjusting to a new driver line-up after the loss of Scott McLaughlin to IndyCar racing in the USA, with Will Davison solid but not threatening and Anton De Pasquale not helped by an engine failure on Sunday.

Jamie Whincup did his usual smooth and professional job after a lacklustre start at the Bathurst 500 sprint meeting early this month to score a pair of podiums that lifted him to second in the standings, but even he is already 150 points behind his teammate after just five races.

The surprise star of the weekend was Brodie Kostecki, a main-game rookie with a big future, who upset the form book by taking second in the final race with an Erebus Commodore. Apart from his driving ability, he brought some much-needed comedy to the top of Supercars.

“It was a really good race. I’m stoked to be here. But I still got beaten by a guy with one arm,” Kostecki laughs.

But van Gisbergen’s unbeaten start to the season, one of only four five-race sweeps in touring car history and the first since Mark Skaife was at his best, is an ominous pointer to an early championship wrap.

Van Gisbergen refuses to even think about the races to come, apart from boost his recovery before the next leg at Symmons Plains in Tasmania, and is only focussed on his effort at Sandown. He is even smiling as about one of his side-by-side battles with Mostert.

“I was giving him the thumbs-up. It was really cool,” he says.

And his final verdict on the weekend?

“It’s unreal. Super cool and awesome to race in front of fans again in Melbourne. It was unreal,” he says.

Sandown SuperSprint results

Race 1:

Race 2:

Race 3:

Championship points: